While eating my meals, the Knicks' chances of making the playoffs appear supremely irrelevant. Yet—somehow—this is all people seem to be concerned with. Besides a handful of friends and family members, my mom's situation can't even beat out A-Rod as fodder for water cooler discussions.

These skewed priorities have me looking closer at my fellow humans as they swarm to and fro through the metropolis I call home. Surely, deep down inside, they don't actually give a damn about Paris Hilton's contempt for undergarments, right?

 

Well then, what are these folks really thinking about? What is their headline?

 

Maybe the woman talking loudly on her cell phone over there can't read but has kept it a secret for her entire adult life, or perhaps the tired-looking man walking to my left is a closet alcoholic.

 

See that homeless man with the tattered coffee cup? He quite possibly could be a veteran of the first Gulf War who's never recovered from the hell in which he participated.

I'm most likely surrounded by failed geometry tests, accepted marriage proposals, messy divorces, down payments on new houses, winning lottery tickets, and ideas for the Great American Novel. Go ahead and try it out for yourself.

 

Look around at all those furtive flings, revised resumes, sexy secrets, heroic home runs, and yes, ailing relatives half a continent away. Everyone has a story; everyone has his or her own personal headline.

 

Even so, if you knew my mom, you'd agree: There's only one headline that belongs on today's front page.

 

 

Mickey Z. is the author of five books, most recently "50 American Revolutions You're Not Supposed to Know: Reclaiming American Patriotism" (Disinformation Books). He can be found on the Web at http://www.mickeyz.net